Brass Rubbing: Sir John and Joan Peryent

From Horowitz. 2002. Sir John is completely encased in plate. His sword belt, richly decorated, is clasped across his hips. He wears a misericorde, gauntlets and a collar of SS. His feet rest upon a leopard, unlike most brasses of men that have lions at their feet. His wife, Joan, has perhaps the most unusual headdress found on a brass. Her hair is curiously plaited and top-heavy, with a coverchef in folds at the top. Her gown is drawn at the waist by an ornamented band, and her folded collar, which falls back on her shoulders, has the popular symbol of the swan, adopted by the Lancastrian royal household as a badge since the days of Alianore de Bohun and her sister, Mary. Joan's gown falls to the ground at the sleeves, exposing the kirtle beneath. At her feet is a hedgehog, the only figure of its kind depicted on an English brass. This was undoubtedly a play on her maiden name, Risain or Arisain, from the French Herisson (hedgehog) or Oursin (sea-hedgehog). She wears a collar of SS around her neck. John Peryent was one of those fortunate individuals who served Richard II, survived the king's demise in 1399 and became a supporter of the triumphant Duke of Lancaster, now King Henry IV, without repercussion. Sir John was born in Brittany and after arriving in England became both an Esquire of the Body to Richard II and his pennon-bearer. After 1399, he was esquire to Henry IV and Henry V and served as Master of the Horse to Queen Joan of Navarre, the second wife of Henry IV. Since Queen Joan was the widow of John, Duke of Brittany, it is likely that Peryent found favor with the royal household through her due to their common connection with Brittany. In 1411, Sir John was given the status of an Englishman and decided to settle in Hertfordshire, where in 1414 he obtained the manor of Digswell. His wife, John, daughter of Sir John Risain, was also born in Brittany. When she received her "naturalization" status, she was described in the records as one of the damsels of the queen. Indeed, on the inscription of her brass she is referred to as the chief lady-in-waiting. She died on 23 April 1415, leaving a young family of three sons and two daughters. The brass of Joan and her husband was probably completed soon after her death but definitely before that of her husband's in April 1432. Sir John provided for the endowment of a chantry (masses for the dead) at Digswell. His second son, John succeeded his father in lands and manors. The son's much smaller brass was set in a stone near that of his parents.

Horowitz, Mark R. The Monumental Brasses of England: The Horrowitz Collection. Morton Grove, IL: Portcullis Productions, 1980 (1979). p. 15. Horowitz, Mark R. The Monumental Brasses of England. The Horowitz Collection. New Edition, 2002. p.27-28.